Just minutes after President Biden failed to offer any real explanation for why things have gone sideways in Afghanistan amid the U.S. withdrawal, Pentagon officials proved that much of what Biden told the American people was untrue. That or Biden is entirely unaware of critical information regarding what's going on in the world.
Despite standing at the President's side while Biden declared "we know of no circumstance where American citizens, carrying an American passport" have had trouble getting to Hamid Karzai International Airport, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reportedly told members of the House of Representatives that Americans are in fact being beaten by the Taliban in Kabul.
NEW: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a briefing call with House lawmakers just now said Americans have been beaten by the Taliban in Kabul, according to multiple people on the call. Austin called it “unacceptable.”
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) August 20, 2021
Reporter:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 20, 2021
"Defense Secretary Austin just now, in a briefing call with House lawmakers, said that there were reports of Americans being beaten by the Taliban in Kabul. Is the U.S. military under orders to stay at the airport and not go protect them?" pic.twitter.com/Du9NLvnocV
Pentagon making it very clear that it’s still hard to get to the Kabul airport despite what Biden claimed earlier
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) August 20, 2021
The two possible explanations are that either Joe Biden is so far outside the main current of information in his administration that he doesn't know what is happening to Americans trapped in Afghanistan, or that he just lied to the American people with a straight face from the East Room of the White House. Clearly, Biden's word is only as good as the Taliban's with whom Biden says an agreement has been reached to allow Americans safe passage.
Another claim Biden made in his remarks was that al-Qaeda is gone from Afghanistan. But Pentagon Press Secretary, immediately following Biden's remarks, said the opposite in telling a reporter that al-Qaeda is still in Afghanistan.
.@JenGriffinFNC: "What is your current estimate for how many Al Qaeda are in Afghanistan?"@PentagonPresSec answers there's no exact estimate, but they know Al Qaeda, ISIS have a presence.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 20, 2021
GRIFFIN: "But the president just said that there's no Al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan?" pic.twitter.com/VkjfFnOFmF
Again, which is it? Does Joe Biden not know the countries in which al-Qaeda members exist, or did he lie about the future of a renewed al-Qaeda threat in Afghanistan?
The fact that the commander in chief could stand before the American people and apparently lie about what's going on while assuming no one would bother to check his facts suggests again that Joe Biden simply does not give a rip about the reality in Afghanistan and is just hoping that his liberal media lapdogs will go along with what he says.
Already, though, he's being fact-checked – and not just by who you'd expect. No, in addition to Fox News, a reporter with ABC News — yes the same ABC News that got caught editing its recent interview with Biden to cut some of his gaffe-iness — said "the reality and the rhetoric" from Biden "are miles apart."
Fox News' @JenGriffinFNC on President Biden's speech:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 20, 2021
"I'm having a hard time digesting what we heard because I couldn't fact-check it fast enough in real-time because there were so many misrepresentations of what is happening on the ground." pic.twitter.com/hoj2TAoltT
ABC News reporter Ian Pannell rips Biden’s false claim that Americans are getting to Kabul airport safely.
— Tommy Pigott (@TommyPigott) August 20, 2021
“the reality and the rhetoric are miles apart...The truth on the ground is that these people who are in fear of their lives couldn't get through."pic.twitter.com/BZKTjkb1B2